Jeff Brown -You Try To Do Your Best

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Jeff Brown’s quilt is another testament to resilience, perseverance, and the intricate layers of all human experience. I meticulously transcribed his words from a video featuring local Windrush community members, and “You Try To Do Your Best” emerges as a powerful mantra.

Born in Jamaica, Jeff’s story is one of migration and adaptation. Arriving in the UK on the eve of Jamaican Independence aged 16, his life was one of cultural fusion and personal discovery. His mother’s worked hard on the Midland Red buses, and his words show the struggles and triumphs she had whilst striving to carve out a better future for her family. They both had to face awful racism and inequalities, but they managed to cope and become an established members of Leamington life.

As with the other quilts in the series Jeff is depicted with his clothes fading into the background while his face and hands remain in stark focus. It’s a deliberate choice, a visual metaphor for the passage of time and the transient nature of memories, and the gradual assimilation of culture.

At the heart of the composition lies a table laden with symbols of Jeff’s journey. A music centre – a relic from the 1970’s when he ran a small disco, sits alongside bus tickets which are a reminder of his mother’s job and the rhythm of everyday life. The Jamaican flag unfurls, a reminder of early life, identity and heritage. Postcards of The Pump Rooms are imagined and are there to illustrate memories of a time when housing stock in Leamington was poor and a weekly bath had to be taken in the Pump Rooms, while the terraces of houses emitting smoke illustrate a misunderstanding he had when he first saw them on arrival, that smoking chimneys were not in fact factories but houses which needed fires for warmth.

I hope to honour Jeff Brown and the other countless individuals like him who have left an indelible mark on the fabric of our communities. Through these Windrush quilts, I’m celebrating not only the triumphs but also the trials that shape all of us, stitching together our shared humanity.